Fadedwords

I’m not what anyone would call a “Christmas Person.” In high school friends would hum the “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch” song when I walked by them in the hall.  I’ve been called Scrooge, Grinchy, and most recently Ebby by friends who seem amused by the fact that I just don’t get in to the Christmas Spirit.  I’ve been asked by more religious friends if I dislike the holiday because of the religion associated with it.  My disdain for Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus or God or organized religion, which they may or may not believe.  Thankfully I also don’t fall into the trap of having to prove myself to anyone either.

I dislike Christmas, and pretty much always have, because it’s a commercialized bunch of malarky.  I’ve said since I was in high school that I don’t care what you get me… if you don’t get me anything that’s just fine.  Nobody ever believes me.  I like to get presents, sure, but if you would trade in my present for just treating someone with kindness that’d be enough for me.  Everyone, including myself, is so caught up with material things and money and all that nonsense.  There’s enough good will to fill a thimble, and I think that’s being generous.  I dislike the false pretenses, the obligation to act cheery if you’re not… it’s just not my holiday. 

Occasionally, though, something reminds me that all is not lost.  Right now I’m sitting in my office looking at 22 huge bags of Christmas gifts, as well as two brand new bikes that were brought to me by a local church.  The members of this church have an angel tree every year, and this year they helped 8 of the families at my school.  On top of that, one of the 5th grade classrooms here had an angel tree and the students brought gifts for another family that was in need.  As I look at these things I am reminded that this is what it’s supposed to be about.  It is not about the presents, although they do make people happy.  It is about people giving of themselves selflessly just to bring joy to another person’s life.  These people that gave are complete strangers to the families they got gifts for, but that didn’t matter to them.  And that’s a beautiful thing.

Sometimes you have to look for the good in the world.  Sometimes it shows up at your office carrying 22 bags full of presents. 

The pep rally yesterday was as great as an event could be.  We started right on time, with 3rd and 4th grade coming in first.  Fifth grade came in last, which is exactly how I’d hoped it had happened; it is their last year at our school and I really wanted them to feel a little extra special and celebrated.  The teacher I had asked to emcee, Mr. A, went over the ground rules for the rally and all that.  He then got all the kids pumped up and cheering.  We went through the games, all the grade levels did their individual cheer that they had come up with in between some of the games.  The kids had a really wonderful time.  I got some great pictures.  When it was all over, fifth grade was allowed to stay in the gym and listen to music for a little while, and I got some great shots of them all together relaxing and having fun.  I plan to make a special bulletin board on Monday with the photos just to remind all the students how much fun we had.  The best part of the event was that the kids had such a wonderful time.  The second best part?  Both the AP and the Principal told me they had loved it and were really happy with how it went.  I was so incredibly relieved.  I was also so thankful for the teachers who helped me, and proud of the students for their incredible behavior.  I really work at a fantastic school, and I feel incredibly blessed.

After all the running around from the rally, I was exhausted.  My friend at work, Bre, invited me and our other friend Elyssa over to crop again.  I decided that I really wanted to go, despite my exhaustion.  Once again, I’m glad I went.  I had so much fun and I got a ton done in my Biltmore album.  I also got to know two friends even better, and had a lot of laughs.  I have many more goals with the scrapbooks… just getting the journaling done in my books and having the title on pages in my books from last year done.

Tonight is the Tim McGraw concert with Courtney and Paul.  I am incredibly excited… I haven’t seen Court since our trip to Savannah, and I haven’t seen Paul since St. Patty’s Day.  It will be good to spend time with two of my closest friends here in North Carolina.

Yesterday was a wonderful day.  Today has already been fantastic and productive as I prepare for my friends’ visit.

Things that have been fantastic about today:

• I had a really positive end-of-year summative evaluation with my principal.  She told me that I was doing an “outstanding job” and that she could “see me being a high flyer in this school”… so I’m feeling great about that.
• All of the Extend1 testing is done and 100% of the scores are entered on line.  All of the NCCLAS paperwork and on-line scoring is done as well.
• I only have 3 or 4 small things to gather up in order to be ready for EOGs next week.
• A friend and co-worker brought me a really beautiful card this morning that made me cry.  It was a rare reminder that I’m doing a good job and people are noticing.
• I finished the spirit stick for the pep rally.  It is outstanding. 

I’m nervous still about how the pep rally will go today.  I just want my principal to continue to be impressed and happy with what I’m doing.  I hope that’s the case.

Now I must go eat lunch so I can get back here before the rally and finalize some things.

On this, the most awesome of all holidays, there are things I love:

-My job… because I can look like this and it is 100% ok (and even expected). 

-Being Irish.  I mean, really Irish… not just “I wore green so I can go to the bar and look really cute and festive.”

-Knowing that corned beef and cabbage will be our very scrumptious dinner. 

-Holiday parties at work. 

So Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to everyone.  I hope you remembered your green

I am the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs (ATOD) Coordinator at my school.  This isn’t a really difficult task; I just keep track of the activities that I do and that the other teachers do that apply to ATOD curriculum.  ATOD also falls under the safe schools umbrella, so anything about bullying, gangs, violence is included.  We as ATOD Coordinators were given a chance to apply for a mini-grant, to get pretty much any materials that we might want to use in our school to help the ATOD program.

I applied for the grant, and was told today that I was approved.     I will be getting the Why Try program manual.  The manual comes with all the materials I will need to implement this awesome program with my kids.  I saw a presentation on this program when I went to the NCSCA conference back in October.  I was impressed not only with the program, but with the passion the presenters had for it.  I really think it will help my students a lot.  I never would’ve been able to get this without the grant, because it’s incredibly expensive… so I feel incredibly lucky that I got approved for the grant money.